Britain’s orchestras are to get tax relief from April 2016 modelled on the system already introduced for theatres, the chancellor George Osborne announced on Friday.

The move was welcomed by Mark Pemberton, director of the Association of British Orchestras. “Tax relief will make a big difference to our members’ resilience in these challenging times,” he said.

It will help orchestras “to continue to offer the very best in British music-making to audiences both here in the UK and abroad.”

The Treasury said it wanted to bring “real benefits” to more than 175 orchestras in the UK and encourage them to perform across the whole of the country.

It said that in 2012-13 orchestras played to 4.5m people in the UK in more than 3,500 performances. But while audience numbers are growing, income from ticket sales and hires fell by 11% between 2009-10 and 2012-13.

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Osborne, a known Wagner fan, said: “The UK is home to world-famous orchestras that make a great cultural contribution across all parts of our country, and are engaged by millions of people.

“I want to make sure our great orchestras continue to thrive. Our new tax relief will encourage orchestras to perform across the whole of the UK – helping secure the future of live performances in the UK.”

He said tax reliefs had been successfully introduced to support film, theatre, animation and video games. “This shows how targeted support can make a real difference in promoting British culture and the way the UK is viewed internationally, and we are building on this with the new orchestra tax relief.”